One year ago this week, Sergei Bobrovsky was acquired by the Blue Jackets from the Philadelphia Flyers. What is harder to fathom now, that the Flyers parted ways with Bobrovsky or that his arrival in Columbus — for three draft picks — was met with so little regard?

Bobrovsky won the Vezina Trophy last night as the NHL’s top goaltender, accepting the award at Chicago’s United Center before Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

“It’s a great accomplishment for me and for my team,” Bobrovsky said through an interpreter. “Thank you to everyone who voted for me.”

Bobrovsky earned 17 first-place votes from the 30 NHL general managers, who voted before the start of the playoffs. He also got eight second-place votes and one third-place vote, totaling 110 points. He was left off four ballots.

Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers (three first-place votes, 55 points) was second, and Antti Niemi of San Jose (six first-place votes, 46 points) was third.

“When I got (traded) to Columbus, I didn’t care what people (around the league) think or what they say,” Bobrovsky said. “The most important thing for me was, ‘How can I help this team? What can I do to get better?’ That was my only focus.”

Bobrovsky, 24, also finished fifth in voting for the Hart Trophy, given to the NHL’s most valuable player. Alex Ovechkin of Washington won the Hart.

He is the first Russian player to win the Vezina, and the youngest player to win it since Jim Carey, 22, in 1996 for the Capitals.

The Blue Jackets had only two major NHL award winners before last night. Goaltender Steve Mason won the Calder Trophy (top rookie) in 2009 and former captain Rick Nash shared the Maurice Richard trophy (most goals) in 2004.

No Blue Jackets player has ever received a vote for the Hart.

“This is a tremendous moment for Sergei, and similarly for our franchise,” said John Davidson, the Blue Jackets’ president of hockey operations and a former NHL goaltender. “He became a guy you could count on every day. He set an example for our franchise.”

It’s an incredible turnaround for Bobrovsky. In 2012-13, he struggled mightily with Philadelphia after falling into the backup role when the Flyers signed Ilya Bryzgalov to a free-agent contract.

But last season was entirely different. Bobrovsky was 21-11-6 with a .932 save percentage and 2.00 goals-against average, including four shutouts.

“I didn’t know a lot about Sergei before we acquired him,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “But after the trade was out at the draft, (Flyers coach) Peter Laviolette tapped me on the shoulder and wanted to talk. He just went on about Sergei Bobrovsky: ‘You’re going to love this guy. He competes. He works. He’ll help drive your team. He’s a great kid.’ That got me excited, and he was absolutely right on all of it.”

The Blue Jackets finished on a 19-5-5 run and missed making the Stanley Cup playoffs by one point on the last day of the regular season. Bobrovsky was the backbone.

“A team can draw an enormous amount of inspiration from the position,” Blue Jackets goaltending coach Ian Clark said. “It permeates every aspect of play all over the ice, and we saw that.”

Clark said a 4-3 shootout victory over Edmonton on March 5 at Nationwide Arena was the turning point. The Oilers led 3-2 early in the second when Bobrovsky took over for starter Steve Mason.

“He went post to post for two backdoor stops on (Oilers forward) Jordan Eberle,” Clark said. “We came back to win that game, and he came out of it with a lot of moxie. The rest of the team was feeling it, too, and it just built and built from there.”

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